City Traders Imperium vs Topstep: which prop firm is better in 2026?

The price question

City Traders Imperium opens at $29 against $49 for Topstep, a substantial gap on the smallest account. At the reference size of 100 K the comparison is $449 for City Traders Imperium against $99 for Topstep. The headline fee is rarely the real cost, though: what matters is the price of a reset after a failed attempt, whether the fee comes back on the first payout, and whether an activation fee appears when you move to a funded account. Compare those three lines in the table above before deciding on price alone.

How the loss limit behaves

City Traders Imperium applies a trailing intraday drawdown capped at 6 %. Topstep applies a trailing (end of day) drawdown capped at 4 %. This is the single most consequential difference between the two. A static drawdown is measured once, from the starting balance, and never moves; a trailing drawdown follows your equity upward, so a winning streak raises the floor you can no longer fall below. Intraday trailing is stricter still, because it tracks unrealised peaks reached inside the session — profit you never actually banked can permanently raise your loss threshold.

Getting paid

City Traders Imperium keeps 100 % of profits, allows a first withdrawal after 7 days, then pays Monthly at level 1, twice monthly at level 2, weekly at level 3; first withdrawal possible after 7 days. Topstep keeps 90 % of profits, allows a first withdrawal after 5 days, then pays On request: Express Funded Standard after 5 winning days at $150+; Express Funded Consistency after 3 trading days with a 40% consistency target. Payout frequency deserves as much attention as the split itself: a slightly lower share paid every two weeks compounds faster than a headline percentage locked behind a monthly cycle and a long first-withdrawal delay.

Tooling differences

City Traders Imperium is the only one of the two to offer mt5, match-trader. Topstep covers ninjatrader, tradovate, rithmic, which its rival does not. Platform choice is not cosmetic: order execution, available order types and the reliability of your automation all depend on it, and switching mid-evaluation is rarely possible.

How much history each firm has

Topstep has been running since 2012, 6 years longer than City Traders Imperium. On Trustpilot they sit at 4.2/5 and 3.6/5 respectively. Our trust pillar scores them 85/100 and 80/100, which weighs age, corporate transparency and public payout evidence. In an industry with no financial regulator overseeing these evaluations, longevity and a verifiable payout history are the closest thing to a guarantee.